The fishermen’s guild of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, in Girona, has joined the actions of the LIFE ECOREST project and its objective of restoring deep-sea habitats with the active involvement of the fishing sector. With its incorporation, 9 fishermen’s guilds located in the provinces of Girona and Barcelona are collaborating on the project, coordinated by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC). These guilds are those of Llançà, Port de la Selva, Cadaqués, Roses, Palamós, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Blanes, Arenys de Mar and Vilanova i la Geltrú.
The participation of the fishing sector is one of the pillars of the project, which focuses on restoring degraded seabeds and recovering the loss of their habitats and key species, such as gorgonians, corals and sponges, among other structuring organisms.
The involvement of fishermen during the project consists in their participation in active restoration actions, a process which aims to rescue organisms that are accidentally caught in the nets, recovering them in aquariums installed in the fishermen’s associations, and then returning them to the sea. Thanks to the coordinated work between the scientific team of the ICM-CSIC, the University of Barcelona and the fishermen’s associations, more than 2,000 organisms have been rescued, previously recovered in the aquariums and returned to the sea to date.
The release of organisms is carried out in 14 areas, 12 of them are areas of action of the project with a permanent closed season and 2 areas have a temporary fishing restriction, which has been agreed between the fishermen’s associations, the scientific community and the Spanish fisheries administration. This is the case of the Tancat de Llançà and the Tancat de Cap de Creus.
The project is being developed on the continental margin of Barcelona and Girona, one of the most diverse areas of the Western Mediterranean, which harbours a wealth of species, some of them threatened. It is estimated that more than 90% of the seabed between 50 and 800 metres deep in these areas show signs of degradation.
RESTAURACIÓN DE HÁBITATS PROFUNDOS
LIFE ECOREST project aims to improve the conservation status of deep-sea habitats and demonstrate the effectiveness of participatory management involving the fishing sector.
This initiative, coordinated by the ICM-CSIC, counts on partners such as Federació Territorial de Confraries de Pescadors de Girona, Fundación Biodiversidad del Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico, Universitat de Barcelona, and WWF España, as well as the financial contribution from the European Union’s LIFE Programm